If you hadn't heard, Brett Doney is from Maine. MATR has long recommended Maine as a strong comparison state to Montana because of our similarities- Rural character, No major city center, part time legislature, traditional resource based economy, great distance to major cities. Montana can learn a great deal from the economic success that Maine is proactively developing : "Charting Maine's Future: An Action Plan for Promoting Sustainable Prosperity and Quality Places" http://www.matr.net/ar ... .html

To drive IT, State needs entrepreneurial makeover. Education is the key.That speaks to the type of creativity and problem-solving that innovation experts believe is absent in K-12 education. Thieme, author of Islands in the Clickstream, has written about technology's impact on the social and cultural events that affect business, particularly collaboration and work teams, and how executives are oblivious to it. He said the same neglect affects public education, which has been slow to recognize the benefits of creative collaboration fostered by electronic games.
"Kids are supposedly `wasting time' on online multi-player gaming, but when half a million people are online at the same time, participating in new social structures, it's not wasting time," Thieme explained. "It's learning new skills and new collaborative abilities. And to give kids the opportunities to explore that rather than just drill down and do exercises about it, is absolutely essential."

The fear factor. Helena reacts to “The Walter Ego”If anything is evident from Adams’ story, the blog comments, and the e-mails flying around the capital that the public will never see, it is the need for, at a minimum, full disclosure and clarification of Walter’s role. Without that, the climate of fear that permeates the issue will continue—and Montanans deserve better than to be afraid of their own government.

Vonage Launches Service in MontanaHigh-speed Internet subscribers working and residing in the Cowboy Capitol can now take advantage of the Vonage(R) broadband phone service, featuring unlimited local and long distance calling and popular features like call waiting, call forwarding and voicemail for one low, flat monthly rate.

Dawson Community College receives grant for economic developmentThe Office of the Commissioner of Higher Education will receive $1.2 million over two years to administer the grants to recipients all over the state. DCC will receive approximately $300,000 per year for three years.
Other area schools selected to receive WIRED funding include Montana State University-Northern in Havre and Miles Community College in Miles City.

Venture capitalists digesting proposed patent actThrough its "first to file" provision, big corporations will be able to use their teams of lawyers to quickly and firmly file patents, slamming the door on cash-strapped entrepreneurs who may have come up with the idea first — and presumably also on the venture capitalists who could back those entrepreneurs.

Real World Government Open Source"When you advertise 'we do open source'" he said, "you attract innovative people. And staff morale is better. They feel like they are a part of something big and they are the owners of what we do."

University of Wyoming sets research funding record"Maintaining a string of 20 consecutive years of increase, through good and bad years in the Wyoming economy, is a notable achievement," said Bill Gern, UW vice president for research and economic development. "It is hard to think of anything that has shown a year-to-year increase for 20 years."

University TechTransfer

"University Pre-Seed and Venture Funds" Discussion on the growing number of universities with pre-seed and venture funds, essential resources needed to help create entrepreneurial start-up companies and commercialize university technologies.

Making the Most of the American Prairie

Inventor helps grasslands go native"We're going to change the economics of the native grass seed industry," Arbuckle said. "The Seedster isn't a combine or a stripper, but a new-fangled plucker. This harvester isn't a better mousetrap; it's the first one."

Connectivity & Communications

Product helps disabled people use computers
Today, Chappell's Mesa-based company, EyeTech Digital Systems Inc., makes a system that combines a camera that tracks a person's eye movement with speech automation software that orally communicates words a person spells out on a screen.